Chapter 4 of the Deathly Hallows Read-Through is brought to you by Lily Luna!
In Chapter 4 we get many echoes of the past and foreshadowings of the future set in an alchemical framework. First off in this chapter we get a completion of the farewell to the Dursleys with Harry reminiscing about his old cupboard, dreams, and solitude. We learn the final part of the Dursley legacy to Harry: from Dudley Harry learns of the possibility of redemption even in the unlikeliest of people; from Petunia Harry learns muggle cleaning and how to cook breakfast (skills he sadly fails to use on the camping trip to come); and from Vernon he learns some choice swear words (always useful).
There are several instances in which Harry is analogized to Voldemort. When Harry reflects on the times he enjoyed when the Dursleys left him at home in peace, “it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.” This phrasing echoes when Harry looked at the name “TM Riddle” in the diary in “Chamber of Secrets” and thought it was “almost as though Riddle was a friend he’d had when he was very small, and had half-forgotten.” This provides a subtle hint of Harry as Horcrux.
A more obvious hint is Mad-Eye Moody saying “even You-Know-Who can’t split himself into seven” while explaining the merits of the Seven Potters escape plan. Voldemort actually splits himself into eight leaving seven horcruxes. Six horcruxes are evil objects/Nagini and are destroyed. Six of the Potters are fakes and revert after an hour. The real Potter and the last horcrux are identical and the trick is to destroy the Voldysoul within Harry without destroying the container (Harry). We get a small hint of how this will occur with what happens to Hedwig. There are seven snowy owls similar to the seven Potters – six fakes and one real one who is killed. Rowling has said Hedwig’s death is supposed to represent the death of innocence, but it also seems to foreshadow Harry’s death. While Hedwig does not come back to life, Harry explodes her cage to attack the death eaters, similar to Fawkes’ spontaneous-combustion which heralds his resurrection. The curse Harry uses (Confringo) is the same one Hermione uses in Godric’s Hollow which breaks Harry’s wand.
Mad-Eye is like Santa Claus with his two bulging sacks, where the gifts are not of tangible things but of love: thirteen people willing to risk their lives for Harry (okay, twelve plus Dung). “Harry’s heart seemed to glow at the sight” of them but when he learns the plan he doesn’t want to let them do it. He is still used to “solitude,” to going it alone. This is the real Dursley legacy: that adults are not to be relied on and he must do everything for everyone all by himself. This lesson must be unlearned for him to succeed and yet in the end it’s still Harry going alone into the forest to sacrifice himself with only shadows of the dead for comfort. Note also the contrast between Harry’s keen “sight” when he’s sensing and responding to his friends’ love as they arrive and Hermione’s comment on Harry’s poor “eyesight” which aptly describes Harry’s inability to accept his friends’ willingness to endanger themselves for him. In addition, the Order rises “oblivious” into the circle of Death Eaters: they have been kept in the dark about Dumbledore’s machinations and Snape’s obedience thereto.
Here are some of the alchemical elements in this chapter; I’m sure there are others: the window of the Dursley car burns scarlet as they are leaving; we have an alchemical wedding (Remus and Tonks); Harry’s Polyjuice Potion is a “clear, bright gold” as befits Harry’s future status as the golden individual who is the mirror of the Philosopher’s Stone; the Order rises into the center of a circle of Death Eaters; red and green spells collide during the chase like fireworks, another allusion along with the motorbike to the night Voldemort was defeated the first time; Harry knocks out a tooth, a possible veiled allusion to dentists (like Hermione’s parents) who use mercury (Hg) in their work (the tooth is regrown magically by Ted Tonks, who is a muggleborn like Hermione); Harry’s wand shoots golden fire breaking Voldemort’s (Lucius’ wand); and finally the chase itself.
The chase is an inverted clone of Harry’s usual end-of-book descent below ground to combat danger in which he nearly dies but wins out (it’s inverted because it’s up in the sky instead of underground, rather like Katie Bell rising six feet in the air when she touches the cursed necklace in HBP instead of being buried six feet under). The chase foreshadows the Gringotts break-in; in both Harry escapes on a dragon(-fire bike). Some interesting points:
- The bike is souped up by Arthur Weasley like a James Bond car is by Q. This reminds me of Voldemort telling Wormtail to untie Harry and give him back his wand in the graveyard, a very Bond villain-like stupid idea.
- Hagrid tries to fix the sidecar with his flowery pink umbrella. It doesn’t work for him, but the fact that he can do magic at all with a wand that was snapped in half seems to be a subtle hint for us to wonder why. It’s likely that at some point Dumbledore repaired it with the Elder Wand as eventually the Elder Wand repairs Harry’s wand.
- Some of the curses such as Wingardium Leviosa are nice reminders of events in earlier books. Expelliarmus, the big one he learned from Snape, gives him away.
- Voldemort comes flying “like smoke on the wind” like the specter he’s becoming, rather like Nearly Headless Nick when he was petrified by the basilisk and dulled to dark smoky gray.
- Harry’s alchemical figurative death occurs when he “was sure [Voldemort’s red eyes] would be the last thing he ever saw.” Voldemort vanishes when Harry enters the protection of the Tonks property. This both mirrors the Death Eaters appearing “out of nowhere, out of nothing” at the start of the aerial chase and is similar to Voldemort vanishing after he tried to kill baby Harry. The crash into the ground recalls “Prisoner of Azkaban” where Harry falls out of the sky when the dementors come into the Quidditch stadium and Harry hears his mother’s screams and Voldemort killing her.
- All four elements are present in this chase: fire (dragon-fire bike, Confringo), air (it takes place in the air), earth (smashing into the ground), and water (smashing into a muddy pond)
There’s lots more I didn’t touch on which I will leave for the pub.
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Good stuff LL, really enjoyable to read. I’m not into the alchemical analogies, but the repeated themes and images and foreshadowings are cool to savour and reflect upon. I’d forgotten about Harry’s thought about the diary in Chamber: the phrase “almost as though Riddle was a friend he’d had when he was very small, and had half-forgotten” sends chills down my spine. Makes me wish that she’d written Voldemort a little less Bond-villain-like and a bit more Lecter-like.
I do think that sometimes a broken tooth is just a – broken tooth.
Also, as much as learning to accept help is a life lesson many of us need to learn, in the end Harry does have to go it alone, and one could argue that his reluctance in accepting help from those who love him are in preparation for that last walk. I fully appreciate the irony that he is not exactly alone in that walk, but that is by way of a miracle, an act of grace from Dumbledore. The decision to sacrifice his life is made in solitude.
“like a
When I first read that line of dialogue from Mad Eye Moody about Voldemort not being able to split himself into seven, I kind of brushed it off as a corny “guffaw” moment. But your deeper observation is pretty neat about how it again draws parallels between Harry and Voldemort and re-emphasizes their connection. The whole set piece kind of plays out the trio’s hunt for the horcruxes and the final realization that Harry is the last horcrux. Both scenarios are also a means of delaying death for Harry and Voldemort respectively. And in much the same way that the lives of Harry’s friends are on the line, each of the Horcruxes represents a life taken. Perhaps we could even say that Dumbledore foresaw these parallels as he himself orchestrated both the Horcrux hunt and the use of decoys from beyond the grave.
Lily Luna, very good comments & thoughts.
In regard to Harry’s “solitude,” I think what you say has some merit. But I also a think a greater thing is not necessarily Harry’s belief gained from the Durseley’s that adults aren’t to be trusted, but the fact that Harry has faced repeatedly the deaths of people who stood between him & Voldemort. He knows what usually happens to those who try to protect him & keep him safe. They die. I think after so much trauma Harry might be forgiven for wanting to protect those he loves & cares about.
I, too, always wondered why Hagrid could perform magic with his wand when it was broken when he was expelled from Hogwarts. I like your idea, LL, that DD fixed it with the Elder Wand.
Also, I find it amazing that Harry wasn’t more injured given his crash to the ground.
Voldy flying on the wind – now that was a scary image!
Interesting insight into how the air is the domain of evil. Satan is called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2-”Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
In Martin Luther’s Table Talk he discusses how evil spirits are responsible for certain weather patterns especially sudden and fierce wind squalls.
Its interesting that Syltherin house, underground is considered the evil house but Ravenclaw- the Air house isn’t.
Great points, Lily Luna. I’m especially intrigued by the idea that Dumbledore may have repaired Hagrid’s wand, and how that could be a slight foreshadowing of what will happen with Harry’s wand.
This chapter contains my favorite line of the book: “I won’t blast people out of the way just because they’re there. That’s Voldemort’s job.” It says so much about who Harry is and hints at some of the decisions he will make throughout the book.
I love the jokiness of the beginning of the chapter, which so abruptly turns to chaos. This is the last time that Fred and George will be able to fool anyone about their identity. Initially I was very relieved by the aftermath of this chapter in regard to the twins; I figured that having the death scare with George and making him permanently damaged meant that those two were out of hot water. I wasn’t entirely sure we’d even see them again, though I figured they’d probably come in somehow at the end. But Rowling really yanked me around with those two…
I never quite understood why Voldemort could fly. The first time I read DH, it struck me as corny. Why does Rowling give him (and later Snape) this power? Is it because of the association between air and evil? Or just to show Voldemort’s power?
For the first time we see the trio, the twins, and Fleur participating as if they were members of the Order. Transition to adulthood is also emphasized in this chapter by Harry’s reminiscences, leaving the Dursley house, and the death of Hedwig. And a nice touch that Harry both arrives at and leaves the Dursleys’ on Sirius’ bike with Hagrid.
The ironic thing about Voldemort being able to fly and that being treated as unheard of is that’s how Hagrid told Harry he got to Hut on the Rock back in SS and there’s no other apparent method by which he could have gotten there: he’s too heavy for broomstick or thestral, he didn’t use Sirius’ motorbike, there’s no other boat tied up, and I assume he doesn’t know how to or can’t apparate because of his size and not having finished his schooling. And he tells Harry he flew. Guess Rowling hadn’t thought this far ahead on the details when she wrote SS and then forgot she had Hagrid say he flew when she wrote DH.
I too am astounded that neither Harry nor Hagrid died instantly when they smashed into the ground, muddy pond notwithstanding. There’s something cartoonish about it, like when a character falls off a cliff and pops up from the ground like a pancake and then pops out good as new. Didn’t someone joke during the HBP readthrough about Wile E Coyote and his Acme products to try to catch the Road Runner?
I think the miraculous survival from the fall is a good indicator that there are other powers at work. Just like Bilbo was “meant” to find the Ring, Harry and Hagrid were meant to survive this. Their lives/deaths are reserved for more noble purposes than death in a muddy puddle.
Another mark of adulthood – Harry calling most of the adults by their first names. That was a little jarring for me at first, especially with Lupin. Of course, he still refers to the Weasleys as Mr. and Mrs., which is kinda nice; I suspect that he, like Ron, will always be, in a sense, Molly’s little boy…
I was quite disappointed when they had Death Eaters flying in the recent HBP movie…. It seems to take away from the power and shock of Voldemort flying here.
Their are many get-togethers thought-out the book, the rescue party, Harry’s birthday, the Lipin-Tonks wedding, the trio planning sessions. All these various parties Harry and we are also incredibly fond of these people we have grown up with and loved for years in the books.
“… Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait; Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill, badly scarred and long-haired; Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry; Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink; Lupin, grayer, more lined; Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; Kingsley, bald, black, broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling; and Mun¬dungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy basset hound’s eyes and matted hair. Harry’s heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mund¬ungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met…. In these chapters we are given our last look at our many friends.
Many references to visual looking, wearing Glasses, mirrored surfaces, eye symbology
The kitchen’s many mirror like surfaces of glass and metal all – shinny¬ – and reflective
Mad-Eye and his crew enter the kitchen “…Aunt Petunia’s gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances…” after the potter-change Fred, was examining his reflection in the kettle. Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door looking a gassed at her temporary self image.
Mr. Weasley’s spectacles a little awry, and Harry’s eye glasses along with all the props the group uses in their disguises. Mad-Eye’s blue revolving magical implant his “all seeing eye”.
Harry was coming up to his “seven”-tenth birthday on 31 July 1997 “… another SEVEN reference “…Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can’t split himself into seven.”
Harry caught Hermione’s eye and looked away at once…” many references to eyes and eyesight “…Ron’s raised eyebrows … and With all of their eyes upon him” Even Kingsley Shacklebolt’s name has a eye reference: Shacklebolt “bolt which passes through the eyes of a shackle”. We could have two rings in the kitchen this day, possibly Kingsley’s gold earring and Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin’s new gleaming wedding ring.
Early in the series I seem to remember something about why JKR wrote into Harry’s character of having poor or low-vision and the wearing of glasses something like representing his Mother’s (Lily’s) great love and that the hero has to have a handicap to struggle, can anyone remember anything about this aspect?
If if was his hero’s weakness then it was a pretty lame one. I don’t recall it ever being a hinderance to him.
I think it might have more to do with Harry being an object of ridicule as a child pre Hogwarts. This then shows how far he travels to achieve hero status. The short, near-sighted, unpopular boy with messy hair becomes the most important child in a magical school and indeed all wizardom. It might also suggest that he see the world differently to other people, or will grow to do so. Maybe something like his capacity to love… or something.
I want to point out that nearly every hero rejects the help of his friends at some point. Why because that is what makes them a hero protecting their friends. Harry is not in any way unique in doing the same thing or flawed, just the opposite any hero who invites his friends to die for him is not a hero. Now that his friends come through for him in any case is also a common mythical thread. Because that is what friends do.
With regard to Hagrid’s umbrella, we have in previous books seen similar instances of broken wands executing magic albeit counterproductive magic, like with Ron’s wand causing him to throw up slugs or making a memory charm backfire. I’ve always thought of Hagrid’s umbrella as a nice touch that effectively symbolizes how the wizarding world has ghetto-ized a “half-breed” like himself.
Lily Luna, this was a most elegant post! You got so much out of this chapter, especially the many parallels/correlations (esp. ppg. 3), foreshadowings, descent “inversion,” four elements, and alchemical elements. Your work is always so impressive and illluminating!
First, sorry for poaching Harry’s closet under the stairs in The Dursleys Departing; it fit as part of the overall past book references during his last evening with the Dursleys. You caught so many other references to the first book, too, like Vernon’s cursing, Harry as kitchen slave, and Hagrid’s umbrella wand (Dudley’s pig tail). The Elder Wand repair never occured to me. Brilliant on CoS Diary!Tom, too.
Speaking of the closet, it struck me that even though Harry is freed at Hogwarts, in WizWorld he remains in a dark closet of ignorance throughout the books, kept there by Dumbledore. Only at the very end, in The Prince’s Tale, is he finally let fully out.
“This is the real Dursley legacy: that adults are not to be relied on…” Absolutely. My husband and I have often discussed this as the reason it often never occurs to Harry, or he refuses, to go to adults for help. I don’t think, revgeorge, that this is contrary to his losses of adult friends.
Dudley’s redemption is the first one in a book of redemptions. What a remarkable example to Harry. If his worst human enemy can repent, the possiblity is open for his worst wizard enemy.
The pond was definitely a jaw-dropping Wile E. Cyote moment. Korg, the laws of physics still apply (as they did in PoA). It would have been more believable to have a Weasley slowing their descent. Just a couple ribs injured? Give me a break (heh!).
Lots of good catches (especially R. Ross), about eyes/vision/visuals and spectacles, critical to understanding this book, as John Granger has written about. Harry wearing spectacles has much important symbolism in the books.
Thanks, Lily Luna, for giving us so much to chew on in this chapter.
AJ, your comment went up after mine. Hagrid wasn’t marginalized, he was expelled from Hogwarts after being maliciously and falsely accused by Tom Riddle of opening the Chamber of Secrets and letting the monster out. Hagrid was merely taking care of young Aragog, the spider. Any student expelled has their wand broken. Dumbledore believed Hagrid innocent, but he wasn’t Headmaster then. It’s fitting that he secretly restored Hagrid’s wand in a hidden way.
Lily Luna, Great post! Thanks especially for pointing out the many alchemical references/symbols in this chapter. It was the first one where these references practically smack us upside the head. I was especially struck by the significance of the polyjuice potion turned into gold at the infusion of Harry’s hair. Wow!!
R.Ross – I don’t think we can count the Lupin-Tonks wedding as a gathering since it is not depicted in the book and I believe we find out they went about it rather secretly. We first hear about it from LV, no less, in the first chapter around the table. Also, Lily Luna, it is interesting to see Lupin and Tonks as an alchemical couple since, it is supposedly a wedding of the Red King (Bill Weasley) and White Queen (Fleur Delacour) that we are looking toward. However, as we all know by now it is the offspring of Remus and Tonks that becomes “The Orphan.” Not sure why Rowling worked in these elements in this way, but the deaths of Remus and Tonks (to me) are far more poignant than if somehow Bill and Fleur had died leaving an orphan behind. It makes much more sense to the series to have Harry as Teddy’s godfather and father figure. Seems a little mixing up of the elements, though . . .
I did a few more searches on “Harry’s glasses” maybe a bit closer to what JKR is getting at. I think???
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/1200-readersdigest-boquet.htm
Harry his glasses. “Don’t they understand that they are the clue to his vulnerability?”
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-edinburgh-ITVcubreporters.htm
JK Rowling: Because I had glasses all through my childhood and I was sick and tired of the person in the books who wore the glasses was always the brainy one and it really irritated me and I wanted to read about a hero wearing glasses.
It also has a symbolic function, Harry is the eyes on to the books in the sense that it is always Harry’s point of view, so there was also that, you know, facet of him wearing glasses.
I am going thought John Granger’s Deathly Hallows Lectures
And Travis’ HP & Imagination, if anyone can point me within these texts, thanks, R.Ross
Also thanks Kathy, sometimes I do get carried away
should read “going through John’s book”
Arabella wrote: “This is the real Dursley legacy: that adults are not to be relied on…” Absolutely. My husband and I have often discussed this as the reason it often never occurs to Harry, or he refuses, to go to adults for help. I don’t think, revgeorge, that this is contrary to his losses of adult friends.”
Well, perhaps. But I seem to remember from my days as a teenage boy that one of the last people you’d go to for help was an adult.
Thanks for the comment, Arabella. Not to overdo a really minor aspect of the discussion, but I don’t know if we can say with certainty that Dumbledore repaired Hagrid’s wand. If that was the case, why didn’t Dumbledore completely repair it into a properly functioning wand (however concealed) like the Elder Wand repaired Harry’s wand? While Hagrid’s expulsion was the nominal reason for his wand being broken, my point was merely how it was symbolic of his outsider status. It’s also not hard to imagine that people were quick to find him guilty of the unleashing of the monster and of Moaning Myrtle’s murder because he was a half-giant.
Hagrid’s wand does seem to function for a number of purposes; maybe it’s the fact he never progressed beyond third year plus the stress of the moment that gives him difficulty with Reparo or has him give Dudley a pig tail instead of transforming him into a pig altogether (which actually would be quite difficult magic, probably NEWT level). Another explanation could be that Harry uses his own wand (Elder wand) to repair his own wand (holly wand) whereas Dumbledore would have been repairing someone else’s wand if he tried to repair Hagrid’s, so the repair may not have been as perfect as it was for Harry.
Arabella, thank you so much for your kind words. I didn’t even remember you “poaching” part of this chapter when you wrote up chapter 3. There is so much crossover that it’s quite hard to not mention events in other chapters in the write ups. I’m guilty of the same thing with regard to the tooth repair.
I know sometimes a tooth is just a tooth, but it’s fun to speculate. And it just occurred to me that muggle dentists would replace a knocked out tooth with a crown, so Harry’s regrown tooth is like a wizard’s crown (a diadem?). Okay, okay, I know that’s a stretch.
I was thinking of Petunia’s antiseptic, bright and clean kitchen as being a bit of “white” alchemical symbolism as it strikes me there is black, white, and red in this chapter. I also thought it was funny when Tonks knocked over the “mug tree” — sounds like such a muggle object.
I always just figured that Hagrid bound up the two broken halves of his wand in the umbrella & that was why his magic never worked out too well. I also figured that Dumbledore just overlooked Hagrid doing this.
Revgeorge, but an abused child will have an *intense* distrust of adult authority. And, at the same time, will also be intensely drawn to kind adults (sometimes in a kind of fourth-wall way, to see what makes them tick). Harry is quite drawn to the Weasleys, but Remus is the first adult to whom he opens himself. Remus sees and shows concern about Harry’s pain, and becomes an important therapist. Thus Harry’s keen (and reactionary) disappointment in him in DH.
Sure, I can see those points, Arabella, although I also think we can only go so far in psychologizing a fictional character. Not that that doesn’t keep me from doing that sort of thing.
Revgeorge, I’m not sure if you’re criticizing me or not, since you acknowledge my point (supported by many studies), and have said you do the same sort of thing. So should I not make such a point in our explorations of character motivation and behavior (and their consequences), when it might be illuminating to others or open profitable discussion?
Rowling wrote a series rich with psychological/emotional elements and layered characterizations that give quite a bit of room within her characters’ profiles and experiences.
Arabella, I’m not criticizing you at all. That’s why I’ve tried to include smiley faces.
However, I do think examining psychological & emotional elements has its limits as fascinating & as helpful as it can be. As many besides me have pointed out, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But I do enjoy looking at the psychological aspects. When I tend to disagree with people is on their interpretation not necessarily on the method of doing so. Plus, even though I can see a person’s point doesn’t necessarily mean I need to agree with them. I can see where they’re coming from, though. Or at least I try to.
Anyway, I’m babbling because it’s been a long day out of town. Suffice it to say, I’m not criticizing you. Pax.
Two notes (forgive me if I missed this in Lily Luna’s excellent post and the conversation above which I have read too quickly):
(1) Mad-Eye Moody’s death is sacrificial, as Harry realizes later. He knows the Dark Lord will assume the real Harry is with him, so he takes Mundungus, whom I assume he knew would Apparate if in real danger. That the Eye/I dies here is a marker for what the eye symbolism, the predominant symbolism of Deathly Hallows is about, means. Not to mention the importance of how and where Harry buries Moody’s Eye is for understanding the anagogical meaning of the Deathly Hallows “triangular eye,” about which see The Deathly Hallows Lectures.
(2) Lily Luna notes that the Seven Potters are an Inversion of the (supposedly) Seven Horcruxes but doesn’t spell out the meaning of the inversion (again, if I missed it, please, Lily, forgive me for being a pedant). Harry’s friends offer themselves in loving sacrifice to protect him, i.e., to keep him alive, over Harry’s objection. He is the story cipher for love, conscience, or the ‘inner heart’ in the books and they’re willingness to “become him” is a sign of their innate goodness. The gold Polyjuice Potion is a marker of Harry’s nature being “liquid Light” or “golden.”
Voldemort, in contrast, preserves his ego-persona existence (‘the flesh’) by murdering people and investing his soul fragments in inanimate or darkly animated objects, allegorical idolatry and materialism. No love, no light, no vision, no higher Self, conscience, or sacrifice. Rather than others choosing to become the human incarnation of Logos, the Light of the world, Voldemort becomes the ‘Dark Lord’ and facially serpentine.
This is the story of the books in a passing vignette.
I wish I could say, Travis, that the they’re/their gaffe was intentional to get a rise out of you. It’s just there (!) because I didn’t proof it before posting… My apologies.
There’s something earlier in the chapter that interests me and perhaps John can elaborate.
When everyone takes the Polyjuice Potion, “The real Harry thought that this might be just the most bizarre thing he had ever seen….” He’s understandably uncomfortable with seeing people who are himself/not himself, and their free display of his body as they change clothes. As they change, Hermione says, “Harry, your eyesight is really awful.”
Even though this is merely physical, we never “see” ourselves, even physically, as we really are. Our self-vision can be “really awful.” Also, Hermione is seeing through Harry’s physical eyes. I believe this to be a comment on Harry’s spiritual vision-that-still-needs-correcting, but perhaps there’s more to this I’m not “seeing.”
Gee whiz! I go away for a weekend and when I get back, there are all kinds of neat-o columns here. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but after reading the post by R. Ross and Arabella Figg about Harry’s eyesight, I thought I would write a more mundane observation.
One of the reasons that I liked the first book was that Harry wore glasses. Thanks for including that quote from JKR about why she gave Harry glasses, R. Ross. She could have given them to Hermione, the brainy one, and that would have fit the typical, stereotyped “brainy student”. Typical of Jo’s brilliance, she chose to make Harry, the hero, the one with the glasses. As a side note, I’ve observed many other advertisements and programs where children are wearing glasses now, a la Harry. I didn’t see that at all when I was growing up. As someone who wears glasses myself, and has had to have them since third grade, having a character like Harry to identify with would have made life a lot easier when I was growing up. I’ll leave the observations about the eye/”I” connection to John Granger, as he writes much more eloquently about it than I can, and as I wrote, I’m just going really on the basic mundane level here.
Fricka, I like the mundane level, too. That the hero of a 4100 page story wears glasses is genius on a level apart from symbolism. What an encouragement to kids who wear them and rebuke to those who tease them as being somehow “lesser.”
Harry’s “miraculous” protection against Voldemort seems to require sacrifice to be invoked.
1. As a baby, Lily’s sacrifice shields him from Voldemort’s Killing Curse. Lily’s, because of their white colour, signify innocence.
2. In Philosopher’s Stone, Ron’s chess sacrifice precedes Harry’s second shield against Quirrelmort.
3. Cedric Diggory’s death precedes the Priori Incantatem. Diggory, who is so fair that he offers to let Harry take the Triwizard Cup instead of just grabbing it himself, seems to be another symbol of innocence.
4. Sirius, who is an innocent man wrongly convicted, dies shortly before Harry defeats Voldemort’s possession.
5. Hedwig, a snowy white owl, dies just before the phoenix wand destroys Malfoy’s wand.
6. There are a lot of deaths that precede Harry’s survival in The Forest Again, but I will go out on a limb and say that the “sacrifice” there is the destruction of Ravenclaw’s diadem, which I think symbolizes Holy Wisdom—- tying it to the deaths of both Lily, his mother, and to Hedwig (an owl).
SPT, that’s an interesting idea, but I would say that in DH the relevant “sacrifice” is Snape. He is the one who gives up any thought of trying to save his own life for the sake of ensuring that Harry gets the final info he needs via his memories, which info sends him on his journey into the forest.
However, I have a bit of a problem with your list because it combines people who willingly made a sacrifice (Lily, Ron, Sirius (in the sense that he willingly entered the fray), and Snape (per my amendement)) with those who did not willingly made a sacrifice (Cedric, who never intended to die or to fight Voldemort, even if he willingly shared the Cup with Harry, and Hedwig, who was in a cage and had no freedom of movement or choice in the matter).
More fundamentally, the blood protection from Lily’s sacrifice saves Harry as a baby, in book 1 against Quirrelldemort, and in the Forest Again in book 7. It does not come into play in the other books. Yes Harry does survive each book, but it would be hard to have a seven-part Harry Potter series if the hero died in the second book. Deus ex machina at times, yes (*cough*Fawkes*cough). But the fact that others die or are knocked out does not mean that they are a necessary “sacrifice.”
John, I used the word “inverted” in reference to the chase being in the air instead of underground, not with respect to the horcruxes/Harrys. Your point is well taken that the horcruxes/Harrys are dark/light opposites, with one pair being fused together.
Arabella, I do enjoy your explorations of character psychology. I guess the one caution is that it has a limitation in that it depends on Rowling getting the psychology right when she wrote it.
At a symbolic level, I don’t think that the “willingness” of the sacrifice really matters much. Having every single instance being a willing sacrifice for Harry’s benefit would actually undermine the symbolism, by making the sacrifices manifest (and obvious) actions rather than symbols. That would be clumsy and too “on-the-nose”, even when spread across seven books.
As for Snape being the sacrifice that enables Harry’s survival in The Forest Again, you may be right. His doe patronus allows Snape to be seen as a symbol of innocence, despite the fact that you would normally regard him as anything but.
What tilted me in favor of the diadem was the fact that it fits in very neatly with the death of Hedwig (another symbol of wisdom) which comes just before the similar “miraculous protection” incident in this chapter, where Harry’s wand destroys Voldemort’s.
Thank you, Lily Luna. I do like to explore what motivates characters, given their stories and my own knowledge. Re the caution you give: Rowling certainly had to bypass much of the likely real-life impact of Harry’s Dursley upbringing, or we’d never have had the story. But I stick with what I wrote. It was John, actually, in The Hidden Key, who pointed out Remus as Harry’s “de facto Jungian analyst.”
SPT I like your list but I think Dumbledore’s sacrifice at the end of HBP might be tied to the beginning of DH. We know for sure the intent was sacrificial in that it prevents LV from being chosen by the elder wand and being the victor in the battle to come.
Re my comment #32. Harry’s “awful vision” is also a pointer to his perfected vision at King’s Cross.
Darn. I missed this when it first was posted. I hope it’s all right to comment now.
Lily Luna , I absolutely loved your comment that Arthur’s car is a bit like Q souping up Bond’s cars. Arthur is one of my favorites: one of the nicer bits of the new movie was the scene in Arthur’s hobby shed. I always thought that his fascination with Muggle things and tinkering is a direct influence on Fred and George: semi-innocent hobby becomes professional joke shop becomes defense industry, perhaps?
Hedwig’s death is one reason I found this book so very hard to re-read. I am always suspicious when authors include the death of a pet. I think that in many cases, it is a cheap call for pathos. Here, I could see the necessity. To me, it was one of the first losses in Harry’s slow journey to a sort of Calvary; he loses one of his first real friends, then his support, then all creature comforts, and his last parental figure (Lupin), his best friend, and finally his life. It’s horrible, but inevitable.
My mother once tried to cheer me up about it by remarking how passive Hedwig is in the beginning of the book, as though she were stuffed, and that Hagrid says “she had a good old life,” but I think Hagrid is only saying that to try to comfort Harry. After all, no one suffers more when an animal dies than Hagrid.
Darn it, I’m misting up again.